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Tag: Autophagy

Fasting in Ayurveda: Beyond Intermittent Fasting and Weight Loss

Fasting has become one of the biggest health trends in recent years. You have probably heard of intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating, or 16:8 fasting.   Researchers have spent years studying these patterns, and studies suggest that giving your body regular breaks from food can improve metabolism and support overall health.   But before fasting even became popular, Ayurveda had already recognized its value. More than 2,000 years ago, Ayurveda described this approach as Langhana. Rather than viewing fasting simply as a way to lose weight, Ayurveda viewed it as a method to help the digestive system recover and function better.   In the Charaka Samhita, one of Ayurveda’s oldest and most fundamental texts, there are two approaches to treatment. One is Brimhana, which means nourishing and strengthening the body. The other is Langhana, which is to make the body lighter.   Langhana includes fasting, eating less, or taking lighter meals over a period of time to give your digestive system a chance to improve.   Both approaches are used for different situations. Someone who is weak and recovering from illness may need Brimhana to rebuild their strength, while someone who feels sluggish, heavy, and has poor digestion will benefit from Langhana.   There’s one important distinction we need to understand here. Langhana and fasting are not the same thing.   In Ayurveda, Langhana is the broader therapeutic principle of lightening the body and reducing the burden on digestion and metabolism. It is one of the two fundamental approaches to Chikitsa.   Fasting, or Upavasa, is simply one of the methods used to achieve Langhana.   In the Charaka Samhita, Langhana is described through Dashavidha Langhana, or ten methods of producing the lightening effect in the body. Upavasa (fasting) is one of them. Others include Atapa Sevana, therapeutic exposure to sunlight; Pipasa, controlled restriction of water intake in carefully selected situations; Vyayama, exercise; and Deepana-Pachana, therapies that stimulate digestion and help clear accumulated Ama.   The approach always depends on the person’s Agni, strength, disease, and overall constitution.   This is an important difference in how fasting should be discussed today. Ayurveda never treated fasting as something everyone should be doing. It was only recommended when the body needed it.   Digestion Comes First   In Ayurveda, digestion is the centre of health.   When Agni works well, food is broken down properly, nutrients are absorbed, and waste is eliminated. That is when the body stays healthy.   But if digestion is weak, it may result in the formation of Ama, leaving you with signs like bloating, sluggishness, and heaviness.   The underlying problem is very simple. A digestive system that is constantly overloaded with food might not work efficiently. Sometimes, instead of adding more food, you can benefit by consuming less or having less to process.   That is why the approach of Langhana exists. It gives the digestive system time to soothe, recover, and catch up, because your body also needs rest.   Where Modern Science Meets Ayurveda   While modern science and Ayurveda explain the body differently, they have arrived at similar conclusions about fasting.   In 2016, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his work on the mechanisms of autophagy.   Autophagy is the process where cells internally break down and recycle damaged components. His subsequent research showed that fasting can activate autophagy, essentially giving cells the chance to clear out accumulated waste that has been building up from continuous eating.   This is the cell’s self-cleaning process. At a conceptual level, this may appear similar to the Ayurvedic idea of clearing Ama, although the two come from very different frameworks.   There was also research led by neuroscientist Mark Mattson, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which described what is now called the metabolic switch.   You might have heard of this phrase. It is the shift that occurs roughly 12 hours or more into a fast, when your body moves from burning readily available glucose to burning stored fat and producing ketones.   This switch has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, reduce inflammatory markers, and improve stress resistance at the cellular level.   Separately, there was also research led by biologist Satchin Panda, who focused on time-restricted eating.   His studies commonly examined eating within an 8 to 12 hour window rather than eating across 14 to 16 hours. Trials in this area have linked consistent eating windows with improvements in blood sugar regulation, blood pressure, and body composition.   He also proposed that the digestive system and metabolic organs like the liver, pancreas, and gut all operate on their own daily rhythms. Giving them a predictable time to rest each day allows them to function more efficiently rather than processing food unpredictably around the clock.   This is interesting when viewed alongside the Ayurvedic concept of Dinacharya, which has long emphasized regularity and consistent meal timings. The emphasis Ayurveda has always placed on regular timing and regular intervals of food, combined with Langhana.   Ayurveda has never separated these pieces of advice. They were always treated as part of the same principle for supporting the digestive system.   The Real Takeaway   The point I’m trying to make is not that Ayurveda has been proven right by science.   No.   The more accurate and useful point is that two very different systems, despite being separated by thousands of years and built on completely different ways of understanding the body, have independently arrived at the same core insight. Our digestive system needs structured, deliberate breaks to recover and function well.   And this is not the same thing as simply eating less overall.   These few simple principles behind Langhana are worth holding on to.   Consistent meal timings matter just as much as what your meal contains. Leaving real gaps between meals is important because it gives the digestive system a chance to do its job.   Not everyone needs the same… Continue reading Fasting in Ayurveda: Beyond Intermittent Fasting and Weight Loss

Why “More Nutrition” Isn’t Always Better

Overnutrition has become a distinctly modern problem due to the abundance and easy availability of convenient foods. The belief that “more nutrition is always good” has also become increasingly widespread.   Now, let us talk about this according to Ayurveda.   More than 2,000 years ago, one of Ayurveda’s fundamental texts, the Charaka Samhita, dedicated an entire chapter to diseases caused by overeating and overnourishment. It is called the Santarpaniya Adhyaya (Sutrasthana 23).   The Charaka Samhita did not describe the foods that we eat today. Instead, it described an entire pattern of eating. It observed the pattern and the diseases that arose because of it.   In the text, Charaka states that not everyone needs more nourishment. He describes two broad causes of disease.   One is Santarpana, where disease is caused by overnourishment.   The other is Atarpana, where disease is caused due to undernourishment.   When we look at today’s medical advice, the focus is mostly on deficiency. If someone is not getting enough protein, they are advised to increase protein intake. If they are low in iron, they are told to take more iron. If they have low energy, they are encouraged to build it up through supplements.   Ayurveda always had a broader view.   It recognized that too much can be just as harmful as too little. The goal has always been to maintain balance.   When we look at what causes overnourishment, Charaka lists several foods, patterns, and habits that contribute to disease when taken in excess.   These include foods that are Madhura (sweet), Snigdha (oily), Guru (heavy in constitution), and Picchila (slimy), along with new grains, milk and milk-based foods such as Payasam, and various meats, particularly from aquatic animals.   All of these, when consumed in excess (Atimatrasaha) and combined with a sedentary lifestyle and excessive daytime sleeping, may contribute to disease.   When you read that paragraph again, many modern foods might come to mind. But Charaka was not describing any of them. He was describing a pattern of eating that looks remarkably similar.   According to Ayurveda, repeatedly eating this way and living such a lifestyle can disturb Kapha and Meda Dhatu (the fat tissue), eventually leading to Srotorodha, or blockage of the body’s channels.   Ayurveda does not simply advocate eating less. It has always been about choosing the right approach.   The chapter immediately before this one, Sutrasthana 22, explains how to manage nutrition properly. It is the Langhana Brimhana Adhyaya, which describes two complementary therapeutic approaches.   One is Langhana, which means lightening the body through fasting or reducing food.   The other is Brimhana, which nourishes and rebuilds the body.   The right approach depends on the individual and their internal constitution. Someone recovering from an illness may need nourishment, while someone who is overloaded or overnourished may benefit from reduction.   These approaches should always be assessed by a qualified Ayurvedic doctor.   The answer does not always have to be another medicine, another supplement, or eating more. Sometimes, doing less is exactly what the body needs.   Interestingly, a research study published in Nature Metabolism in 2024 found that consuming more than about 25 grams of protein in a single meal may reduce a process called autophagy, the body’s natural way of clearing damaged cells.   The idea that the quantity consumed in a single meal matters sounds remarkably similar to Charaka’s emphasis on Matra, or eating the right quantity of food.   Nutrition was never simply about eating more. It was always about eating the right amount, for the right person, at the right time.   Over the years, if you look at the conversations around food, they have almost always been about one nutrient at a time. First it was carbs, then it was sugar, and now it’s protein.   Each time, the same pattern repeats: one nutrient is singled out while everything else in the meal is ignored.   You cannot isolate a single nutrient and consume it in excessive amounts.   Santarpana was never about one nutrient going wrong. It was always about your entire way of living and eating going out of balance.   That is probably the most significant shift for us to make today.   Instead of asking whether I am eating a certain amount of protein or a certain amount of carbs, or simply trying to make it a balanced diet, we need to ask whether this food is suited for me in this season, at this stage of my life, and in the living conditions I am going through.   Because what nourishes your body depends as much on you as it does on the food itself. Only when both are in sync can your body stay healthy.   When we look at Santarpana and Atarpana, they are simply two ends of the same imbalance.   Too much and too little may sound like one is good and the other is bad, but they are just two different problems arising from the same root.   That is where the idea of Agni, the digestive fire, becomes important again. A person with weak Agni can develop Santarpana-type diseases even while eating a completely normal diet.   Because it has never been solely about the quantity of food; it has always been about how much the body can process. Two people can eat the exact same meal and have completely different outcomes because their Agni is different.   So, it is never about following the same routine for everyone. You should understand your relationship with food.   If you would like to understand more about Ayurvedic concepts that are relevant to today’s modern health problems, you can explore our 3-Month Agni Awakening Program, where we help you understand your relationship with food, digestion, and your own body more deeply.